In remarks with the press on Tuesday, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) spoke about why she voted to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from his role as House Speaker.
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00:00 promise the break of your well i mean at the beginning of the year we talked
00:03 about how we're going to follow the law in congress that we would have a budget
00:06 we have twelve separate spending bills that didn't happen
00:09 we started that process at the at the very last minute
00:12 that's why we're in this situation today
00:14 and i will tell you as a woman
00:17 i've been fighting for women's rights since before i ever came to congress
00:21 and when roe v wade was overturned
00:23 i continued that fight
00:25 and i've made deals with kevin mccarthy with the speaker that he has not kept to
00:28 help in this country
00:30 and we have done nothing for them
00:32 and i come from south carolina when you shake my hand and you make a promise and
00:36 you don't keep it
00:37 there are consequences of those actions
00:41 as a woman who has been fighting my party on this issue to be made promises that we're
00:44 going to work to get women greater access to birth control and we don't do
00:48 it
00:49 and now we're ten months in and we don't have time to do it
00:51 or as a survivor of rape
00:54 and i worked all year on a rape kit bill
00:56 that hasn't seen the time of day
00:58 i cannot tell you how frustrating that is as a woman
01:02 in this conference in this capital
01:05 to have that happen like i i if you make a promise you should keep it
01:08 and if you promise women you're gonna help them
01:10 then you damn well better do it
01:12 so as a fiscal conservative i'm i'm angry as a woman
01:16 i am deeply frustrated
01:18 and i just you know that is the consequence of that behavior and i want
01:21 the american people to trust
01:23 the speaker when the speaker makes a promise to either side of the aisle
01:27 they ought to keep it so for me it's not left versus right because the speaker
01:30 told
01:30 told democrats one thing and republicans another
01:33 we're not going to agree on everything all the time we're gonna have fights
01:36 we're gonna have disagreements
01:38 but we're all adults here and we can have that debate some sides will win
01:42 some sides will lose
01:44 but that debate is worthwhile it's not worth misleading people it's not worth
01:48 misleading people on both sides of the aisle for me it's not ideological
01:52 it's about having a leader in our nation
01:54 who will tell the truth
01:56 you can trust and that's what the american people deserve how do you know
01:59 a new speaker will be any better
02:06 well i mean
02:09 the house is going to be in chaos if this did not happen
02:12 i am looking for a speaker
02:14 who will tell the truth to the american people who will be honest and
02:17 trustworthy with congress
02:19 with both parties
02:20 we are deeply divided nation you're a debate deeply
02:24 divided
02:26 capital right now
02:27 and we can't have we need people are gonna tell the truth you're gonna be
02:30 honest and who the american people
02:32 can trust at the end of the day for me it's about it's about trust and don't
02:36 make promises you can't keep in the whitewoods or the police or speaker
02:40 would you support steve scully's for speaker i i i am open to a number of
02:44 folks up here we should have will have that discussion and will figure out who
02:48 will be the next speaker but
02:49 from my perspective as a woman up here
02:52 i want someone is going to be honest
02:54 and if we say we're gonna help women in this country
02:57 we ought to do it if we say we're going to rain in spending if we say we're
03:00 gonna have a budget now we're gonna disagree on the numbers both sides will
03:03 put that's worthy of a debate
03:05 we say we're gonna have a budget we need to do it we say we're gonna have twelve
03:08 separate spending bills in the power
03:09 i spending back to the people
03:11 we ought to do it but that's not what happened here and that's why we're in
03:14 the situation today if if he were to continue to be speaker
03:17 there'd be chaos that would continue because he's not been honest
03:21 with either party
03:22 what do you know
03:24 i think it was a again and again talks with you can you bring you back to me
03:29 uh... at will see what happens next what do you represent
03:32 yet do you have any communication with the speaker about the speaker decided to
03:36 call my staff yesterday rather than call me
03:39 so i'm right here i've always been here he has my number he knows how to get a
03:43 hold of what we're doing
03:46 well i'm looking for a speaker who will be honest with the american people
03:50 you represent a swing district are you concerned that this
03:53 leadership crisis could hurt
03:55 members like you it could be a difficult race next year this is a debate worth
03:59 having for me this is not ideological this is not left versus right this is
04:03 not chaos this is about finding leadership in this country
04:07 who will be honest
04:08 the american people deserve the truth they deserve someone they can trust
04:11 and that's what it should be about we should be able to trust our leaders in
04:14 this country the reason we're in the place today this whole country is chaos
04:18 right now
04:19 because we have leaders that have divided us
04:21 and not brought us together we want to be united but we've got to have
04:24 leadership
04:25 that we can trust
04:26 you said there was a number of candidates you would consider
04:29 i would be wide open to a number of candidates
04:32 well i mean i think the obvious ones are in the leadership line but
04:36 quite frankly i'm open to anyone who will tell us the truth and will guide us
04:41 through the rest of the congress can anyone run this conference
04:45 if we have people who will tell the truth and be honest with the conference
04:48 and be honest with both sides i believe that we can
04:51 there's no reason there was no reason for this it didn't have to get
04:55 to this today
04:56 but the speaker made promises he couldn't keep and the american people
04:59 deserve
04:59 a leader
05:00 that can be trusted
05:04 are you a grad student?
05:07 i'm a sophomore and i'm still learning
05:09 but as a woman i will tell you it is a very lonely experience to be up here
05:13 and to try and
05:15 negotiate and move forward especially post row
05:19 and to have the door slammed in your face and be misled like that
05:22 for me as a woman it's just it's untenable
05:25 and i want leadership who will
05:27 who will not
05:28 mislead us like if you're going to say we're going to work
05:30 and help women in the post row era
05:32 then let's do it it shouldn't be controversial
05:35 i'm not asking for anything major
05:37 but also if we say we're going to do a budget have a budget
05:40 if we say we're going to
05:42 balance the budget if we say we're going to have twelve separate spending bills
05:45 then let's do it it should not have come down to this
05:48 you've got less than forty five days kevin mccarthy was trying to put
05:53 appropriations bills on the floor well hopefully we'll have a new speaker in short order if we can get it done quickly
05:57 then there's no reason to pause we can move forward we just did four
06:01 spending bills in a week
06:02 and that was about seventy percent of government
06:05 spending
06:05 and we can do another eight and i believe in two weeks i believe there's
06:09 a time if there's the will there will be the way that seventy percent was cut
06:12 with speaker mccarthy
06:14 it sure was however all the other bills the other bills were not done they
06:18 haven't gotten through and other promises were made we didn't even do a
06:21 budget resolution which should have come out in april the spending bill should
06:24 have come out this summer
06:25 by law they're supposed to and here we are in this situation in the ninth hour
06:29 doing a CR not allowing the people to have the power in the spending decision
06:33 because when you have a CR it's not vetted it's not amended
06:35 the representatives don't have a say when you do that the twelve spending bills
06:39 allow a vetting process they allow amendments it allows the people to have
06:43 the power and that's where it should be no matter who's in charge republican or
06:47 democrat there is an order there is a law we're supposed to follow
06:50 when did you make the decision was there a
06:52 republican is going to be in a position to be more favorable to your view on women's rights
06:56 well we'll see we'll see what the pitch is for the next speaker and what our
06:59 conference looks like and who's going to step forward and try to be speaker
07:04 I would support women of course of course I mean there are plenty of
07:08 qualified women here that could be speaker thank you
07:11 -Why did you make the decision?